The solution was building a new home to Passive House standards, without sacrificing the modern aesthetic that they love. They had their architect, Dave Zweber, principal, David Charlez Designs, in Lakeville, design the home of their dreams. Then, says D.R., “We had our builder make it a Passive House.” A Certified Passive House consultant, Ryan Stegora, owner of RJ Stegora Inc., brought to the project history of building highly energy efficient and durable buildings. 

Thick Coat Versus Light Jacket

Rise: Talk more about why you wanted to build a sustainable home using Passive House principles. What about Passive House strategies made sense to you? What other sustainable strategies did you incorporate?

D.R.: Our dream of building a sustainable home originated because of a shared belief in climate change. In learning about climate change, we discovered how building practices impact the environment. From there, we did further research about sustainable techniques. Eventually, we learned about Passive House, which makes so much sense, as far as addressing the energy consumption issue at the root of climate change.

Building a sustainable, energy-efficient home was reaffirmed on both short-term and long-term levels when we had children. One of our children has allergies, making the healthy home environment we were learning about in our sustainability research quite appealing. Long term, we hope that building an energy-efficient home can help shift the conversation in the building industry toward making energy efficiency a mainstream idea.

Rely on the Fundamentals

Rise: What was the most valuable research you found? What research would you point other homeowners to when seeking to build a Passive House or sustainable home?

D.R.: One of the most valuable things we learned is that, at a basic level, sustainability relies on simple fundamentals: A well-insulated building envelope that minimizes thermal bridging and air leakage, combined with balanced ventilation add up to low energy usage. In other words, you can build a home well, and it will require a lot less energy to heat and cool. Sustainable energy solutions are great; the better solution is not needing so much power in the first place. As we live in Minnesota, a great analogy is thinking of a Passive House as a nice, thick winter coat. Traditional building results in “light jackets” that require a steady stream of hand warmers in the pockets.

Rise: How did you adapt Passive House principles, which were developed in Germany, to address the Minnesota climate?

D.R.: Constructing a Passive House in Minnesota isn’t impossible. Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) has standards for different climate zones. Our builder was able to use PHIUS’s modeling to analyze and prescribe the right solutions for our project in a challenging climate. Our home has a lot of insulation!

Making Passive House Mainstream

Rise: What advice would you give to other potential homeowners who wish to build a house to Passive House standards? What do they need to consider? What are the pros and cons?

D.R.: We learned a lot along the way in our project. Probably the most important was finding a good builder who is motivated to adopt a non-mainstream technique like Passive House. Your builder is going to be the one dealing with the day-to-day implementation of the design. You need a builder who is on board with delivering a project that isn’t like most homes, as far as building technique. Building a Passive House takes a team of people. Our advice is to start that team with the home builder or contractor.

If you are considering building a new home, we encourage you to explore Passive House. There are some additional up-front costs to upgrade building materials like high-performance windows, but the long-term benefits of less energy use and a comfortable home are worth it. As homeowners create more demand for energy-efficient, high-performance homes, the building industry will respond and help shift improved energy efficiency into the mainstream.